1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to guns, in particular to guns such as machine guns that are capable of rapid and sustained fire. The present invention also relates to ammunition for guns and to methods for discharging guns.
2. Discussion of the Background Art
Guns, and in particular machine guns, generally include complex mechanisms for loading a cartridge into a firing chamber of the gun. As a result, the rates of fire of conventional machine guns are generally limited, typically up to about 4500 rounds per minute in a fixed multi-barrelled Gattling type gun.
Various ammunition sleeve arrangements have been used in conjunction with Gattling type guns one such example is presented in U.S. Pat. No. 4,452,123 which discloses a rapid fire gun round made with a composite chamber. The chamber is led by rotational motion rather than by reciprocating motion. The round will work in a recoilless gun configuration. An alternate arrangement permits multiple barrels to be arranged with an ammunition chain to form a Gatling gun configuration. A liner can be inserted in the gun barrel to be replaced with wear as appropriate. However the sleeve arrangement is simply loaded into the breach in the conventional manner which does not provided an effective seal between the cartridge and the barrel and as such does not avoid the adverse effects on both the projectile and barrel caused by the lateral spread of pressure and exhaust gases resulting from ignition of the propellant.
Another such example of a machine gun is described in the earlier international patent application PCT/AU00/00857 by the present applicant in which is disclosed a gun including a barrel assembly feed for advancing a plurality of barrel assemblies of the type having a plurality of projectiles stacked axially within each barrel assembly together with discrete selectively ignitable propellant charges for propelling the projectiles from each barrel assembly. The plurality of barrel assemblies are linked together in spaced apart parallel relationship and one or more barrel assemblies are located in a firing station wherein the firing station operatively supports the one or more barrel assemblies. The gun further includes a charge initiator associated with the firing station for selectively initiating said discrete selectively ignitable propellant charges of one or more barrel assemblies operatively supported by the firing station. The barrel assembly has an inner barrel made of a hard, non-deformable material and an outer casing of a ductile material. The outer casing may be deformed by the slots and sprocket teeth of a sprocket drive.